Rise From the Ashes, an OC Insertion Story prep
by Punch A Fish In The Face
Summary: The Lion Turtle doesn't exist. In reality, Phoenix King Ozai killed Avatar Aang, and burned the Earth Kingdom to the ground. Submit your OC to the White Lotus resistance, and take back your home. Not the real story, just submission forms and Zuko's story.


A/N  
>This is an introduction to an OC Submission story. Got an OC? Submit it through review or PM using the form I have listed in the second Author's Note. I'll give more details in future segments.<br>Here's a warning: this first chapter is a little dry. It's basically Zuko recounting events to himself. The real story actually expands on these events in flashback format. I only put enough here to keep it from being flagged as a 'not a story' page. Take note, **This is not the real story.** It is just an advertisement, of sorts. The whole storyline is slightly AU; I am eliminating the Deus Ex Lion Turtle from the plot entirely. This means that Aang doesn't have a way to stop Ozai, so he'd have to take his life to defeat him. Aang didn't have it in him, and Ozai killed him. The last 3 episodes don't happen the way they do in canon, but for a few exceptions. If you have any questions, put them in a review or PM, and I'll give you more details. Now, let's get on with the story.  
>End AN

'_The world will be reborn in fire.'_

That's the tagline of the Phoenix King… My father. I'd known this would have happened eventually, if we hadn't done anything about it. But, how could we have known? What, was some magical Lion Turtle supposed to give Aang some magical power so he didn't have to kill Ozai?

No. Aang hesitated, and now he's gone. Before I tell the story of the resistance, I should first tell you how it all began…

We all took Appa to the airship base. Aang jumped out and flew to the forefront to confront Ozai, while the rest of us would work on dismantling the ships. Sokka and I thought it was a good plan. Sokka would take Appa and distract them, while Katara, Toph, Suki, and I took care of the ships one by one. We'd gotten through three without a problem… Then, disaster struck.

When the comet streaked by, I took the lead of the assault. We made it to the front room, and we were close enough to see the fight. Aang and Ozai were on top of the ship, and Ozai shot lightning. We froze as he absorbed the lightning, as if to redirect it. He aimed, right at him, but at the last moment, he took the coward's way out and missed on purpose. Ozai struck again, and didn't miss this time.

For a moment, they just stood there… Then, Aang began to fall. We were over the canyon, with a bunch of spires, and… Suki and Katara broke down. I'm sure Toph could tell what happened, too, but she told me we had bigger problems- we were being boarded. She told me that we were outnumbered.

I looked back out the window, and even though he was far away, my father locked eyes with me. Quickly, I broke the window, and Sokka took the bison under the break. I know it was cruel, but I forced Katara and Suki to jump on. The troops started to show up then, and I told Toph to jump out. She refused, so I had to physically grab her and jump out.

We sped away from that place, knowing it was too dangerous to recover Aang's body. Two of the ships broke formation and chased us, but after almost a full day of flying, we lost the trail. When we landed, everything around us was scorched and burning, as far as the eye could see. We began to walk North, hoping to find a town that escaped the destruction… We didn't find any.

The outlook was bleak: Katara put out the fires we came across for the first few miles, but eventually, she stopped, realizing she had to conserve water. The only food available was burrowing creatures that escaped the heat; snakes and rodents. I could bend fire for us, but… It reminded me of when I was alone. Back on Ember Island, they told me they'd been in the desert, but I doubt either of our stories were nearly as bad as what was happening now.

Appa was weak from hunger, so we couldn't fly. He could barely hold what water we could salvage from the dried, cracked lakes we came across. Eventually, however, we came across the ocean. We caught fish, enough to last for weeks, even if Appa ate them. We'd lost the flying lemur long ago, and couldn't find him. I could only assume he'd gone with Aang, or stowed away on the airships: I doubt we'll see him again.

After getting mostly reenergized, some of the shock and grief passed into numbness, which was an improvement. Katara bent some water to fill Appa's sacks, and Toph bent the salt out. If we weren't in the situation we were in now, I'd have been impressed to know she could saltbend, since salt is an Earth metal.

Flying for several weeks, staying within view of the ocean, I could eventually recognize some of the landmarks and towns, from when I was still obsessed with chasing Aang… To think that was less than a year ago…

Eventually, we found a refugee column: men, women, and children. They had a glimmer of hope in their eyes when they saw the Bison, but when we landed… It was heartbreaking to see their faces fall when they asked about the Avatar, and I had to tell them he died. I inadvertently broke their spirits, and could only keep them having a will to live by promising daily food and water. Only a handful of people died, but most of them were young children.

We eventually got to the ferry port, which was thankfully still operational. Unfortunately, it was anarchy. Seeing how much my Father affected everyone made me think. Why? Why do this? What makes that… that bastard think he can just ruin people's lives like this? I thought, "No more will I allow this to happen". I called an assembly among the people who were there, and walked up a flight of stairs to the top of a column.

It turned out I'm a better public speaker than I'd thought. I managed to get most of the room to become peaceful. They wanted a leader so desperately- I could see it in their eyes. So, I took that role.

We all got on the ferry to Ba Sing Se- I knew it had been destroyed, but I knew the way into the catacombs outside the walls. We filtered in, only to find that we weren't alone- most of the citizens were evacuated. I heard from rumors that the Order of the White Lotus had managed to fight them all off in the city, but were attacked by remaining Dai Li officials and Ozai's fleet. None of them died, but they were forced underground, in hiding.

My group of refugees joined the original residents, with little conflict. Everyone was welcome. When they'd heard I was the leader of the group from the ferries, they took me, Katara, and the others straight to the Lotus HQ. Apparently, Katara and Sokka's grandmother had married one of the members. The reunion would have been happy, had Aang not been killed. I told them that it was over, and the Avatar was dead, the happy reunion was over.

I wanted to get out as fast as I could, because my Uncle was there. He walked up to me, and I feared what he was about to say. Only… he didn't say anything. He just hugged me tightly for a time, then eventually said he was never angry with me- just disappointed in the path I'd chosen.

The experience was sobering. I realized that he didn't hate me, he just wished I'd never gone with Azula. Then I realized, where was Azula? She wasn't with Ozai, so that meant… she was the Fire Lord, that must be the reason why. Ozai crowned her so she'd stay out of his way while he burned the Earth Kingdom down. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

So… It made me wonder how things would have gone if I'd helped Katara back when I was here last. Maybe… Maybe I could've avoided all this death and destruction? What if…

No. No what-ifs. I can't change the past, but I can work to help the future. I decided, no more would we stand down. No more would we be the whipping boy! I decided to rise against my father. We organized a rebellion, underground. We'll take the outside lands back! I'm sure our population massively overshadows the Fire Nation's.

We'll cultivate plants in the outer ring- only the city interior was destroyed. We'll farm, raise livestock, and rebuild the city underground. We'll take back the Earth Kingdom, mile by mile, until we're stable again. We'll take the Colonies, and use that as a launching point to attack the Fire Nation!

I will earn these people's freedom back, if it's the last thing I do!

A/N  
>That was a basic plot outline and Zuko's plans for the future. I won't give direct spoilers, but I'll give you some hints of the storyline in the OC Sign-Up sheet. By the way, you can submit multiple characters; a good guy, love interest, and bad guy, for example. No limits, but be reasonable.<br>I have a few main types of characters I need a lot of. For Protagonists (good guys), I need Dai Li agents, Ba Sing Se civilians, refugees, Yu Yan archers, Prisoners from The Boiling Rock, Fire Nation citizens who were banished by Azula, Kyoshi Warriors, Water Tribe Warriors, and Northern Water Tribe citizens; all will become a part of the resistance. I also want Antagonists (bad guys), which will consist of Fire Nation citizens and guards (teen conscription will factor in, so you can have a thirteen-year-old Fire Nation guard), Earth Kingdom citizens who live in the Colonies and are loyal to the Fire Nation, rogue Dai Li who support the Fire Nation, Boiling Rock prisoners who are still loyal to Ozai, various Bounty Hunters, and other things like that.  
>If you want to be a major part of the story, Sign in when reviewing, or PM me with your details.<br>The sheet is as follows:

Name: First name, then middle and last if available. Notice: any 'Aerith and Bob' (look it up on TVtropes . org) will be translated depending on character's nationality (Japanese, Chinese, Korean), through cooperation with you.

Nationality: What Nation is your character from?

Bending/Combat Ability: Bending, weapons, fighting style… Feel free to get creative.

Pets or Mounts?

Physical Features: Hair, Eyes, Skin Color, Body build, Height and Weight, etc.

Clothing: I need to know what your character wears!

Personality: What kind of person is your character? What traits does he/she have?

Family and Backstory: Tell me about their past.

Likes, Dislikes, Fears, Nervous Tics, etc: Everyone needs to be interesting.

Also, I need anything else you want me to know about your character, as much as you want (keep it a reasonable length, though, please).

Again, any questions about plot, I'll give them in the next chapter. I'll be giving examples of some of my OCs in the next chapter. If you're not submitting an OC though, could you evaluate my Zuko voice?  
>I hope you enjoy thinking up characters!<br>End A/N


End file.
